About Research & Evaluation at Year Up

In keeping with our core values, Year Up strives to learn and is accountable to stakeholders through our improve and prove Research & Evaluation (R&E) strategy. We have a dedicated team of internal evaluators and data scientists who conduct rigorous studies of our program to strengthen our services to students, academic, and corporate partners, and demonstrate our long-term impact on young adults’ earnings and education. Our work comes to life through:

Scholarship: through analysis of Year Up program and public data sources (e.g., American Community Survey, National Student Clearinghouse)

Partnerships: with dozens of leading research firms and universities across the country

Surveys: of student, partner, and alumni experiences

Impact Evaluations

For decades, federal resources for workforce programs that supported Opportunity Youth were cut or diverted to early-childhood intervention initiatives because of a lack of solid, high-quality research to show that programs like Year Up work. Since 2007, Year Up has conducted a series of gold-standard randomized controlled trials to fairly and objectively study the impact of our program on our students’ long-term success. We have seen amazing results that demonstrate the lasting positive effects of our program.

PACE Outcomes

Year Up is one of nine leading programs selected to participate in the federally sponsored Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) evaluation. We are pleased to present the first report, which highlights Year Up’s incredible earnings gains as the largest to date for workforce programs tested in randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of studies.

Evaluation Partners

Year Up is honored to work with leading scholars, sponsors, and practitioners who support our commitment to improving and proving Year Up. Special thanks to our partners on recent Research & Evaluation projects, including: